Sport, Social Media & #Superbowl Statistics

Superb owl! What’s all this about a superb owl? Oh #superbowl – now we get it! That’s where all the magic happened the other night with two new records being set for the number of tweets per second (TPS) sent.

First record happened at Madonna’s halftime performance, which generated 10,245 TPS. The second record breaker followed shortly after, smashing the first at the end of the game when 12,233 TPS were posted. In the final three minutes alone, there was an average of 10,000 tweets per second. Insane right!

Evidently, big TV events are becoming a major channel for social media activity, with sport being at the top of the list. These extraordinary numbers of online activity are further evidence that in this social age, people like to use Twitter and Facebook to chat online about the content they’re watching on TV. Advertisers are on to this trend and now include hashtags or a link to a Facebook page on the ads surrounding big events.

Twitter wasn’t the only spot online that received the attention of highly active fans and viewers. Google reports that the top searches during the Super Bowl were: Madonna; Halftime show; Patriots; Tom Brady; and Giants.

The incredible rise in this online attention surrounding popular activities points to a great opportunity for us as content marketers, brand ambassadors and social media moguls. Brands that are most successful at gaining attention around a big event are the ones that are most forward thinking in their marketing strategy leading up to the day. It’s not just the event itself where you can get noticed, there’s the before and after too. This gives us numerous opportunities to release compelling content that is top-of-mind for fans. For the Australian Open for example, we might consider updates related to common themes such as the food for the final or which players people are rooting for. People are getting smarter with distributing their content – now it’s your turn.

What can you do around big TV events for your brand/business?

Here are some notable tweets per second (TPS)

– Beyonce’s pregnancy announcement at the MTV VMA’s at 8,860 TPS

– Steve Jobs’ death at 6,049 TPS

– Bin Laden’s death at 5,106 TPS

– The day of the Japanese earthquake and Tsunami in March at 5,530 TPS